It's time to remodel the bathroom......

[Jack Straw]

I am looking for some ideas/suggestions etc... I am considering putting an inline exhaust fan in. The motor will be in the attic with a small 4" register in the ceiling. Does anyone have one?
What about lights? I was going to install 4" recessed incandescent, should I go with LED? We are taking out a 5' tub with a curtain and installing a 5' shower base with glass hinged doors. The hinged seem to look better than the sliders. We will be taking out blue and white tiles (and tiles that have some sort of fish on them) and installing what I refer to as an earth tone tile with a glass tile boarder. Its a small room and we are going to put the same tile on the floor.

Thank you for any help or ideas.

Jack

 

[semipro]

The inline fan sounds like a good idea but I've never had one. I would put a timer or humidistat on it for control though. Design so that condensation occurring in the vent doesn't drip back into the bathroom and make sure you have a backflow preventer flap. Consider carefully where you put the exhaust grill in the ceiling. I've always thought it made more sense to have them above the shower as opposed to locating them in the middle of the room.

LED can lights are nice if you can find them at a decent price. I'm waiting until the price comes down some more but someone on this forum reported find them at Home Depot for about $20 apiece. I like separate lighting for the room and the shower.

If I had a tile bathroom with a shower in it I would forgo the shower base and just slope the tile floor to run into a drain in the shower. I'd hinge the doors off the wall or use a nice shower curtain instead. That way any water in the room whether a overflowed toilet, other leak, or cleaning water would just run down the shower drain.

Good luck with it

 

[woodgeek]

in-line fans are great for this app. I use the Soler-Palau (sp?) TD-125. To avoid condensation use R-4 (or better) insulated flex. I used 4" flex and a 4" grille and I get a little air noise from the grille and can't hear the fan at all. I wired mine to the light for a 1/2 bath, and a timer for a full bath with shower. A humidistat would be cool, but I usually leave the fan off in the winter (humidifying) season.

Only problem: I bought a behind grille damper valve and it gets bent/sticks open. POS. I have a damper on the exhaust end so I live with it.

 

[gzecc]

I personally do not make holes in the ceiling if it is going into an unconditioned space (attic?). Heat is too expensive to let it escape into the attic. Does the house have air conditioning? Is there a duct in the bathroom?

 

[jebatty]

I re-did our bathroom 3 yrs ago. No shower because we have a 2nd bathroom with a shower. Important considerations were: large mirror with indirect lighting; 2 sinks on a single composite counter-top; vinyl solid sheet floor with a tile pattern to handle any water on the floor and for ease in cleaning, soft and warm feel to the feet; solar tube lighting because ours was an interior bathroom and always dark, now bright as day; high efficiency dual flush toilet to minimize impact on the septic system. Have fun with your project. I did all the work on our bathroom and did it during the winter. Summer is too nice for inside work.

A couple of pictures follow: Redwood tub surround was reclaimed from some siding taken off our house; birch ceiling and cabinetry made from a tree on our land; I made the door, also from birch, with cherry accent and a custom-made glass insert.

 

[jebatty]

Another suggestion. Punch holes into the corners of the counter-top for electrical cords, and put outlets under the counter-top and inside the cabinetry to keep dangling cords out of sight. We have just one wall outlet for misc and one outlet on the front of the cabinet intended mostly for the hair dryer -- again, no dangling cord draped across the counter-top.

 

[Xpoint]

I see you really want to redesign your bathroom, last year I run simple redecoration instead. I changed the carpet and went for some beautiful blinds in a really tick fabric for maximum privacy – I share a mansion with two other families so privacy is very important – especially in the bathroom . Good luck with your redesign and please post pics once you are done.

 

[pybyr]

There's a book called "The Bathroom Idea Book" from Taunton press that has all sorts of interesting ideas that others have done; Taunton's books have consistently really impressed me and I don't say that about many printed materials.

Warning: their publications may cause you really cool inspirations that result in "mission creep" that you may likely never regret on a functional and aesthetic level, but which can give your budget a real bashing...

http://www.tauntonstore.com/home-design/kitchen-bath.html?cat=474

I did a total gut to the frame and rebuild back out of two rooms that became 1st and 2nd floor bathrooms (to replace the former bad-1970s one and only first floor bath- which is now destined to someday be gutted to become a pantry/ laundry room when my budget and stamina recover more fully from the massive bath project...) in my pre-civil war VT house about half a dozen years ago.

Use a REALLY good moisture barrier behind the walls if you are opening up walls and have a chance to do so. I like Tu-Tuf crosslaminate poly- way more robust than the usual poly film.

I used Fantech inline fans and have been nothing but highly pleased- they can move a LOT of air with so little noise you may forget to turn them off- quality is in a different universe than the tinny noisy builder-grade/ Homecheapo bath fans. I mounted both fans in the attic and used 4 inch PVC for a vertical run through wall cavities from the first floor bath to the attic- easier and more robust than ductwork. Fantech also makes tasteful understated grilles. HVACquick.com [or something like that] was an excellent source not only for the fans and grilles, but also for the flexible insulated ducting that I used between the fans and the outlet fittings that went out through the gable end attic wall- low prices, big in-stock inventory, modest shipping cost, and quick arrival for stuff.

Chicago faucets make exceptionally high quality fixtures that do live up to their motto "outlast the building" and will free you from ever again dealing with the dripping, messing with replacement cartridges, etc. that befalls most faucets at the 5-10 year mark. Their products aimed at the residential market are insanely expensive... BUT if you dig into their commercial line, you will find nearly identical items with slightly less fancy handles (suits me fine) at prices that are only a modest increment above ordinary grade consumer/ builder stuff. FaucetDepot.com was a good source for me, after I'd dug around on ChicagoFaucets' website to locate the "plain dress" commercial fixtures so that I could identify and order those.

I went by the "anything worth doing is worth overdoing" view- but I know that as long as I stay in the house (which as far as I can see/hope may be decades or 'til the end of my days) I won't have to touch any of this ever again... which is good, as lots of the rest of the house needs attention that can keep me more than busy...